[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 7276 Reported in Senate (RS)]
<DOC>
Calendar No. 417
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7276
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
April 7, 2022
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
June 14, 2022
Reported by Mr. Menendez, without amendment
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To direct the President to submit to Congress a report on United States
Government efforts to collect, analyze, and preserve evidence and
information related to war crimes and other atrocities committed during
the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 2022, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Ukraine Invasion War Crimes
Deterrence and Accountability Act''.
SEC. 2. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) in its premeditated, unprovoked, unjustified, and
unlawful full-scale invasion of Ukraine that commenced on
February 24, 2022, the military of the Government of the
Russian Federation under the direction of President Vladimir
Putin has committed war crimes that include but are not limited
to--
(A) the deliberate targeting of civilians and
injuring or killing of noncombatants;
(B) the deliberate targeting and attacking of
hospitals, schools, and other non-military buildings
dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable
purposes, such as the bombing of a theater in Mariupol
that served as a shelter for noncombatants and had the
word ``children'' written clearly in the Russian
language outside;
(C) the indiscriminate bombardment of undefended
dwellings and buildings;
(D) the wanton destruction of property not
justified by military necessity;
(E) unlawful civilian deportations;
(F) the taking of hostages; and
(G) rape, or sexual assault or abuse;
(2) the use of chemical weapons by the Government of the
Russian Federation in Ukraine would constitute a war crime, and
engaging in any military preparations to use chemical weapons
or to develop, produce, stockpile, or retain chemical weapons
is prohibited by the Chemical Weapons Convention, to which the
Russian Federation is a signatory;
(3) Vladimir Putin has a long record of committing acts of
aggression, systematic abuses of human rights, and acts that
constitute war crimes or other atrocities both at home and
abroad, and the brutality and scale of these actions, including
in the Russian Federation republic of Chechnya, Georgia, Syria,
and Ukraine, demonstrate the extent to which his regime is
willing to flout international norms and values in the pursuit
of its objectives;
(4) Vladimir Putin has previously sanctioned the use of
chemical weapons at home and abroad, including in the
poisonings of Russian spy turned double agent Sergei Skripal
and his daughter Yulia and leading Russian opposition figure
Aleksey Navalny, and aided and abetted the use of chemical
weapons by President Bashar al-Assad in Syria; and
(5) in 2014, the Government of the Russian Federation
initiated its unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine
which resulted in its illegal occupation of Crimea, the
unrecognized declaration of independence by the so-called
``Donetsk People's Republic'' and ``Luhansk People's Republic''
by Russia-backed proxies, and numerous human rights violations
and deaths of civilians in Ukraine.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States--
(1) to collect, analyze, and preserve evidence and
information related to war crimes and other atrocities
committed during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine
that began on February 24, 2022, for use in appropriate
domestic, foreign, and international courts and tribunals
prosecuting those responsible for such crimes;
(2) to help deter the commission of war crimes and other
atrocities in Ukraine by publicizing to the maximum possible
extent, including among Russian and other foreign military
commanders and troops in Ukraine, efforts to identify and
prosecute those responsible for the commission of war crimes
during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on
February 24, 2022; and
(3) to continue efforts to identify, deter, and pursue
accountability for war crimes and other atrocities committed
around the world and by other perpetrators, and to leverage
international cooperation and best practices in this regard
with respect to the current situation in Ukraine.
SEC. 4. REPORT ON UNITED STATES EFFORTS.
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act,
and consistent with the protection of intelligence sources and methods,
the President shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees
a report, which may include a classified annex, describing in detail
the following:
(1) United States Government efforts to collect, analyze,
and preserve evidence and information related to war crimes and
other atrocities committed during the full-scale Russian
invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 2022, including a
description of--
(A) the respective roles of various agencies,
departments, and offices, and the interagency mechanism
established for the coordination of such efforts;
(B) the types of information and evidence that are
being collected, analyzed, and preserved to help
identify those responsible for the commission of war
crimes or other atrocities during the full-scale
Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022; and
(C) steps taken to coordinate with, and support the
work of, allies, partners, international institutions
and organizations, and nongovernmental organizations in
such efforts.
(2) Media, public diplomacy, and information operations to
make Russian military commanders, troops, political leaders and
the Russian people aware of efforts to identify and prosecute
those responsible for the commission of war crimes or other
atrocities during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in
2022, and of the types of acts that may be prosecutable.
(3) The process for a domestic, foreign, or international
court or tribunal to request and obtain from the United States
Government information related to war crimes or other
atrocities committed during the full-scale Russian invasion of
Ukraine in 2022.
SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term
``appropriate congressional committees'' means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Committee
on the Judiciary, and the Permanent Select Committee on
Intelligence of the House of Representatives; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Relations, the
Committee on the Judiciary, and the Select Committee on
Intelligence of the Senate.
(2) Atrocities.--The term ``atrocities'' has the meaning
given that term in section 6(2) of the Elie Wiesel Genocide and
Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018 (Public Law 115-441; 22
U.S.C. 2656 note).
(3) War crime.--The term ``war crime'' has the meaning
given that term in section 2441(c) of title 18, United States
Code.
Calendar No. 417
117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 7276
_______________________________________________________________________
AN ACT
To direct the President to submit to Congress a report on United States
Government efforts to collect, analyze, and preserve evidence and
information related to war crimes and other atrocities committed during
the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine since February 24, 2022, and
for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
June 14, 2022
Reported without amendment